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Ban Bee-Killing Pesticides

A SMALL POLLINATOR, A BIG PROBLEM — Millions of bees are dying off every year, and scientists point to a widely used class of pesticides as one of the main causes.

Our Food Supply Relies On Bees

We have to stop the bee die-off and help this vitally important species recover, for the sake of our food, the environment and our economy.

Bees are in the United States and around the world, and it’s a major problem. We rely on bees to pollinate that provide 90 percent of the world’s food. In the U.S. alone, honey bees pollinate an estimated worth of crops every year.

We to pollinate everything from strawberries to broccoli to the alfalfa used to feed dairy cows. Imagine no almonds, less coffee and chocolate, fewer apples and strawberries, less ice cream and milk … the list goes on.

The bottom line: without bees, we don’t have food.

OUR FAVORITE FOODS — Bees play an important role in pollinating some of our favorite foods, from strawberries and apples to almonds and coffee.

10,000 Times More Toxic To Bees Than DDT

Scientists as one of the main factors causing bees to die off in alarming numbers, in particular a class of bee-killing insecticides known as neonicotinoids (or neonics).

When seeds are treated with neonics, the chemicals work their way into the pollen and nectar of the plants — which, of course, is bad news for bees and other pollinators.

Worse, neonics are at least times more toxic to bees than DDT.

Just one example: After a nearby farm planted corn seeds coated with neonics in 2013, farmer Dave Schuit . “Once the corn started to get planted, our bees died by the millions,” said Schuit.

UNPRECEDENTED LOSSES — In recent years, beekeepers report they’re losing an average 30 percent of all honey bee colonies each winter, twice the amount considered sustainable.

We Can Eliminate These Pesticides

Given the consequences for our farms and our food, you’d think we’d be doing all we can to protect bees and other pollinators from neonics.

Scientists say that we don’t even need to spray these chemicals, since we have commonsense like altering the time of planting and watering, and planting more native species.

Yet like Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Bayer and Syngenta are fighting to prevent bans. Syngenta has even asked federal regulators for permission to use even larger quantities of these pesticides — as much as more than currently allowed.

Alarmed by the role these chemicals are playing in the decline of bee populations, the European Union has several of them; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has on the public lands they manage; and cities like and states like have taken action as well.

Still, even with evidence showing that neonics need to be banned, we continue to spray about of these pesticides on our homes, gardens and public spaces every year.

NO SAFE PLACE FOR A BEE TO EXIST — According to a recent study, about three quarters of all honey worldwide is contaminated with pesticides known to harm bees.

It’s Time For States To Take Action

For the past several years, PIRG and other groups have asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban these pesticides nationwide, and they have failed to do so. We’re not waiting on the EPA any longer. Now, to protect bees and our food supply, we're calling on states to act.

In order to restore bee populations to health and save our food supply, we need states to ban the sale of bee-killing pesticides for our homes, parks and gardens and ensure that they are not used on state property.

If enough states take action, we will eliminate the use of more than of insecticides used in this country. That’s a lot of bees that we can save — bees that will pollinate our food.

That kind of collective action will be a strong signal to large chemical companies and the federal government that we want them to stop poisoning our parks, homes and food with these products.

Right now, we’re spraying chemicals that are known to kill bees just as we’re in the midst of an unsustainable die-off in bee populations. That has to change — now.

Join us in calling on your state to take action to protect bees and our food.

Today, a jury ruled against the chemical company Monsanto, awarding $289 million in damages to Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper who said he got terminal cancer from Monsanto’s best-selling weedkiller Roundup.

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finalize its proposed ban on the toxic chemical chlorpyrifos. The court concluded that EPA violated federal law by allowing the continued use of chlorpyrifos despite strong scientific evidence that the pesticide harms brain development in children.

Many parents and teachers shopping for their students’ 2018-19 school supplies look for a non-toxic “AP” certified label on the products, but many products don’t have that label, so it’s unclear if they’re safe or not. Travel Buddy Education Fund is releasing a guide that warns consumers about some products that may be on store shelves or already in their homes.

With this Safer School Supplies: Shopping Guide, parents, teachers, and students can make more informed decisions while shopping for school supplies this Back to School season. We want to give parents and teachers the option to choose school supplies that do not contain toxic chemicals. This Shopping Guide should serve as a handy tool for finding products free of several types of toxic chemicals.

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Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to finalize its proposed ban on the toxic chemical chlorpyrifos. The court concluded that EPA violated federal law by allowing the continued use of chlorpyrifos despite strong scientific evidence that the pesticide harms brain development in children.

Many parents and teachers shopping for their students’ 2018-19 school supplies look for a non-toxic “AP” certified label on the products, but many products don’t have that label, so it’s unclear if they’re safe or not. Travel Buddy Education Fund is releasing a guide that warns consumers about some products that may be on store shelves or already in their homes.

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Able to combat potentially lethal illnesses such as pneumonia, bacterial meningitis, rheumatic fever and even life-threatening infections developed from simple scrapes or surgery, antibiotics have saved millions of lives and are one of our most important public health tools. Despite their significance, however, overuse and misuse threatens the efficacy of these precious drugs. Among the biggest abuses, often antibiotics are given to healthy animals as a production tool, and not to treat illness.

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Compounding pharmacies are increasingly behaving like pharmaceutical companies by producing drugs in bulk, despite the fact that they are not inspected or regulated like the pharmaceutical industry. Due to this lack of oversight, many compounding pharmacies have not adhered to safe manufacturing practices, and shown little regard for consumer safety. According to an analysis of warning letters sent to other compounding pharmacies by the FDA from 2002 to 2012, there is a long history of violations that have in many cases led to unnecessary illness, injury, and even death.

The 2012 Trouble in Toyland report is the 27th annual U.S. Public Interest Research Group survey of toy safety. In this report, Travel Buddy provides safety guidelines for consumers when purchasing toys for small children and provides examples of toys currently on store shelves that may pose potential safety hazards.

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A solution to America’s trash problem requires a paradigm shift in how we, as a country, think about waste. For that shift to happen, we need to examine the parts of the system that we don’t see every day.

In January, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation to protect native bees and honeybees from pesticide exposure. The new bill requires people who spray pesticides to notify keepers of honeybees and native bees when they are applying pesticide within three miles of a registered beehive.